I share with you a journal writing from a few years ago:

My life, like a painter’s canvas, has become an abstract painting. I’ve strived to keep it crisp and clear, with clean lines. Everything in its place. One corner for love. One for home. One corner for career and another for spiritual growth. Nice. Neat. Tidy.

Then one day as I was reaching to brush strokes on the canvas, the paint spilled. Swoosh! My brush could not contain it. Could not control it. Passion ran into places it had not been invited. It mixed with other colors and changed them. Some became vibrant and vivid. Others turned cloudy and dark, even murky.

I could no longer distinguish the work. It was blurred. No crisp, clean lines. No sectioned corners. Untidy. Mixed and confused. I let the colors run and bleed, fight and blend, rest and dry. Then a new work emerged. An abstract of vibrations, of unforeseen beauty. Curvaceous. Raucous. Real.

This is life. This is truth. This is freedom and rest and wholeness. This is me, and I am only yet now just getting to see, to understand, and to appreciate what is me.

To be honest, I’m not sure I know quite what it means—not in its fulness. Do you ever feel like this describes your life? I’m thinking this may be an introduction to a book on “How Did You Lose Yourself (and How To Avoid Such Mistakes”).  What do you think?  I welcome your thoughts on it.

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And hey, if you haven’t heard yet, my next book will be available on Amazon on Oct. 30. And if you’d like to attend the Virtual Book Launch on Nov. 6, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, you can register here, then Zoom will send you a link for the event: Cathay’s Book Launch Registration